Our Confirmation Youth Have Faith to Share

Allie - Singing God’s Praises

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To me, the love of God is like the love that parents have for their kids. He provides help when I need it, and love when I’m hurting. He forgives me for whatever I do,so that I can forgive myself. He gives me the tools to help others when they are hurting. I am thankful that God is loving and always faithful.

 

A Bible verse that I connect to is Psalm 100:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

Come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he that made us, and we are his;

We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter His gates of thanksgiving,

And his courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him, bless His name.

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

And his faithfulness to all generations.

 

When I think about God and the life of faith, I think of how it relates to music. I have played the piano for 4 years, clarinet for 3 years and sang in the school choir and Hosanna choir for the last year. I have also grown up listening to my parents play in many bands. Within the last 3 years of Confirmation class I have really noticed the similarities between music and faith.

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One way I see similarities with music and faith are the fundamentals of each. The building blocks of music are the notes in scales. I practice them everyday on my instruments, and sing them using solfege, which are syllables that represent the notes. For fans of The Sound of Music like me, solfege is Do, Re, Mi. In Confirmation, I learned the building blocks of the Bible. I learned the Lord's Prayer so I can say it daily, and got comfortable talking to God. I learned the books of the bible so I can reference Bible verses.

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Another way I see similarities between music and Faith is with its expression and performance. Expression and performance in music requires much more than just the notes and rhythms on a page. Effective musical performances require proper posture, breath support and dynamics to bring the music to life. In order for me to “perform” my faith, I must go beyond just praying in church and practicing my faith in worship. Just like I perform my music in public, I share my faith and the good news of God with others. I try to show the love of Jesus through my actions. One way that I show His love is that I empathize with others when they are in pain. I also love to enjoy celebrations, quality time and other meaningful experiences with others.

 

I have always known that God is there for me and that he loves me. I have learned over the past 3 years that there are different ways to connect with and see him in my life. God’s grace and empathy has been shown to be through the actions and love of those in my life. I think God helps me show love and empathy for others. Another way I can share God’s goodness is by sharing music. John chapter 20, verse 22 says “When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Just as God breathed the Holy Spirit on his disciples, I can use my breath to sing God's praises.

 

We should all share our faith so that everyone can understand our point of view. This way we could potentially see God’s work in lots of new ways.

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Rosalyn - Loved As We Are

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Who is God and what has he done? Well let me tell you. I believe God is our guide, protector, and supporter through life. He guides, and protects me when school gets rough and supports and encourages me when I am tumbling and dancing.

 

The bible verse I picked out that best sums this up is Psalm 23:4 “Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me. Your rod and your staff-they protect me. Basically since God is always with me there is nothing I should fear. He will protect, guide, and support me even through the darkest times in my life.

 

My Grandpa Mark passed away 2 years ago and it was one of those dark times for me. He lived up in Minnesota and being so far away meant that I didn’t get to see him much. But when I did see him I was always shy and he never pushed me to talk to him or hug him. He was always happy just to see me and be with me. When he passed I knew that as sad as I was that God was with me comforting me and reminding me that my grandpa would always be watching over me and that someday I would see him again in heaven.

 

Before this, I mainly saw God as a figure that shaped and created the world but really didn’t have any impact my life other than when I went to heaven. Since then, I have learned that God is way more involved in my life than I ever thought. I learned through my grandpa what God’s love is like, that just like my grandpa God will never force me to talk to him, but like my grandpa God accepts me as I am and is just glad I am there. I share Gods goodness with others when I listen to and support my friends at school when they are going through rough times and by helping others whether it’s at school, church, or helping my mom and dad at home, just like God and my grandpa showed me that you give what you receive.

 

I think if everyone shared their faith it would make others feel more comfortable to share theirs. By sharing our faith and letting others share theirs we would see that all of our different religions are not that different. We would see that we all believe in the same guiding, supporting, protecting, and loving God.

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Genevieve - What Love Looks Like

 

Pastor gave me a bit of the bible to look at for inspiration for this speech, 1 John 3:11- 4:21, and after reading that, some of what I got from that was that we need to love each other. John wrote about how God is love, and that we should love each other. He also points out that it’s not necessarily dying for others like Jesus did for us, but instead, that we should love others as our neighbors and protect and help them when they need it.

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He also talks about how "If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything." What I read this as, was that since our hearts are untrustworthy and hurtful sometimes, then God is greater than our hearts, for he knows everything. While I know that we are not perfect, that we should still strive to be like God and Jesus and the love they shared from their hearts.

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In 1 John 4:4-6, it states "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood."  I believe this talks about how you recognize the Spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood. I believe that we need to know this because if we are to be tricked by the spirit of falsehood, then we should know to find the Spirit of truth, and to seek people we know we can trust.

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I have learned many valuable things from confirmation, including how to look at other religions, and respect them, about the bible, and all it can teach me, and about us as people and about how we grow and learn things in life, and many more topics that have helped me greatly. Confirmation has been a great way for me to learn about everything around me, and to understand it too.

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I'm very glad that I've gotten to do confirmation, learn so much, and learn in such a great environment.